The present invention relates to an arrangement for transporting at least one thread, treated in a thread conditioning plant, from a delivery roller pair to a transport belt which takes up the thread in the form of thread loops.
In the case of a known thread conditioning plant (U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,513), which comprises a delivery roller pair and a flat transport belt, a stuffer box is replaced by an oscillating loop laying device in a single assembly modification. The ratio of the speeds between the drive of the delivery roller pair and the drive of the oscillating loop laying device is variable. It is hereby possible in the case of the known thread conditioning plant to deposit threads as required with a stronger or a weaker degree of crimping, or without any crimping at all, onto the transport belt. The patent is based on the concept that the new oscillating loop laying device renders the stuffer box superfluous and that a re-equipping, which indeed is certainly possible, is not a consideration. Experience has shown, however, that in particular in the case of coarser counts of thread, for example carpet threads, the oscillating loop laying device does not achieve the same crimping effect as the stuffer box.
It is an object of the present invention to operate the thread conditioning plant with a stuffer box or an oscillating loop laying device as required without complicated assembly and disassembly.
The object of the present invention has been achieved in that an adaptor is arranged downstream of the delivery roller pair for taking up a stuffer box or an oscillating loop laying device as required.
Differing from the known thread conditioning plant, and in accordance with the present invention, all required operational conditions are not carried out by one and the same oscillating loop laying device. Rathermore, the new thread conditioning plant permits a standard stuffer box to be used alongside the oscillating loop laying device, the latter being known for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,647,109. In order to change over to these types of operation, a complicated modification is not necessary, rathermore, due to the presence of an adapter, one aggregate can simply be exchanged for the other, which exchange is carried out in a very short time. All advantages of the above mentioned prior art are maintained, and at the same time the advantages of the known stuffer box.
The adapter comprises advantageously a hollow cylindrical take-up surface for the stuffer box or the loop laying device. When the stuffer box and the loop laying device each comprise a cylindrical outer contour, an exchange of the two aggregates can take place particularly quickly, in particular when there is a clamping device for taking up the stuffer box or the loop laying device.
The adapter of the present invention, which adapter remains at all times in the machine, is constructed for this purpose of a plurality of parts and comprises a hollow cylindrical take-up surface comprising a tube and also a sealing extension projecting into the wedge-shaped gap of the delivery roller pair. A sealing extension of this type is present, for example, in the known stuffer box according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,647,109. In the case of the adapter of the present invention, however, the sealing extension is separated from the stuffer box and used as a component of the adapter which remains in the machine even during operation with the loop laying device.
In a further embodiment of the present invention a central drive is provided for the drive of the delivery roller pair, to which central drive also the drive of the loop laying device is connected. This means that a drive disc runs idly during stuffer box operations, whereas during operation with the oscillating loop laying device, the drive disc transmits the drive thereof.